Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder,
advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical
education for commerce and public service as on the classics and
theology. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow
a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European
universities, concentrating multiple "faculties" (e.g., theology,
classics, medicine) into one institution. Penn is today one of the
largest private universities in the nation, offering a very broad
range of academic departments, an extensive research enterprise and
a number of community outreach and public service programs. Penn is
particularly well known for its medical
school, business
school, law
school, social sciences and humanities programs and its
biomedical teaching and research capabilities. Its undergraduate
programs are also among the most selective in the country.

In FY2009, Penn's academic research
programs undertook more than $730 million in research, involving
some 3,800 faculty, 1,000 postdoctoral fellows and 5,400 support
staff/graduate assistants. Much of the funding is provided by the
National
Institutes of Health for biomedical research. Penn tops the Ivy
League in annual spending, with a projected 2009 budget of $5.542
billion. In 2008, it ranked fifth among U.S. universities in
fundraising, bringing in about $475.96 million in private
support.

History

In 1740, a group of Philadelphians joined together to erect a great
preaching hall for the evangelist George Whitefield. Designed and built by
Edmund Woolley, it was the largest
building in the city and it was also planned to serve as a charity
school. The fundraising, however, fell short and although the
building was erected, the plans for both a chapel and the charity
school were suspended. In the fall of 1749, eager to create a
college to educate future generations, Benjamin Franklin circulated a pamphlet
titled "Proposals for the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania," his
vision for what he called a "Public Academy of Philadelphia."
However, according to Franklin's autobiography, it was in 1743 when
he first drew up a proposal for establishing the academy, "thinking
the Rev. Richard Peters a fit person to superintend such an
institution." Unlike the other four American Colonial colleges that existed in
1749 — Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, and
Princeton — Franklin's new school would not focus
merely on education for the clergy. He advocated an
innovative concept of higher education, one which would teach both
the ornamental knowledge of the arts and the practical skills
necessary for making a living and doing public service. The
proposed program of study became the nation's first modern liberal
arts curriculum.

Franklin
assembled a board of trustees from among the leading citizens of
Philadelphia, the first such non-sectarian board in
America. At the first meeting of the 24 members of the Board
of Trustees (November 13, 1749) the issue of where to locate the
school was a prime concern. Although a lot across Sixth Street from
Independence
Hall was offered without cost by James Logan, its owner,
the Trustees realized that the building erected in 1740, which was
still vacant, would be an even better site. On February 1,
1750 the new board took over the building and trusts of the old
board. In 1751 the Academy, using the great hall at 4th and Arch
Streets, took in its first students. A charity school also was
opened in accordance with the intentions of the original "New
Building" donors, although it lasted only a few years.

Quad in the Fall, facing Ware College
House

its date of founding, the University uses 1740, the date of "the
creation of the earliest of the many educational trusts the
University has taken upon itself" (the charity school mentioned
above) during its existence.

The institution was known as the College of
Philadelphia from 1755 to 1779. In 1779, not trusting
then-provost the Rev.William Smith'sloyalist tendencies, the
revolutionary State Legislature created a University of the
State of Pennsylvania. The result was a schism, with Smith
continuing to operate an attenuated version of the College of
Philadelphia. In 1791 the legislature issued a new charter, merging
the two institutions into the University of
Pennsylvania with twelve men from each institution on the
new board of trustees. These three schools were part of the same
institution and were overseen by the same board of Trustees.

Penn has three claims to being the first university in the
United States, according to university archives director Mark
Frazier Lloyd: the 1765 founding of the first medical school in
America made Penn the first institution to offer "undergraduate"
and professional education; the 1779 charter made it the first
American institution of higher learning to take the name of
"University"; and existing colleges were established as
seminaries.

Educational innovations

College Hall and Logan Hall viewed
from Woodland Ave., ca. 1892.

Penn's
educational innovations include: the nation's first medical school
in 1765; the first university teaching hospital in 1874; the
Wharton
School, the world's first collegiate school of business, in
1881; the first American student union building, Houston Hall, in
1896; the country's second school of veterinary medicine; and the
home of ENIAC, the world's
first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer in
1946. Penn is also home to the oldest psychology department in North America and is
where the American Medical
Association was founded.

Motto

Penn's motto is based on a line from Horace’s
III.24 (Book 3, Ode 24), quid leges sine moribus vanae
proficiunt? ("of what avail empty laws without [good]
morals?") From 1756 to 1898, the motto read Sine Moribus
Vanae. When a wag pointed out that the motto could be
translated as "Loose women without morals," the university quickly
changed the motto to literae sine moribus vanae ("Letters
without morals [are] useless"). In 1932, all elements of the seal
were revised, and as part of the redesign it was decided that the
new motto "mutilated" Horace, and it was changed to its present
wording, Leges Sine Moribus Vanae ("Laws without morals
[are] useless").

Colors

The official school colors are red with hex value #990000, and blue with hex value
#011F5B. In printed materials they are PMS 201 red and PMS288
blue.

The College of Arts and Sciences is the undergraduate division of
the School of Arts and Sciences, which also contains the Graduate
Division and the College of Liberal and Professional Studies,
Penn's division for non-traditional undergraduate and graduate
students.

Penn has a strong focus on interdisciplinary learning and research.
It offers joint-degree programs, unique majors, and academic
flexibility. Penn's "One University" policy allows undergraduates
access to courses at all of Penn's undergraduate and graduate
schools, except the medical, veterinary and dental schools.
Undergraduates at Penn may also take courses
at Bryn
Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore, Penn's fellows in the Quaker Consortium.

Joint-degree and interdisciplinary programs

Penn offers specialized joint-degree
programs, which award candidates degrees from multiple schools at
the University upon completion of graduation criteria of both
schools. Undergraduate programs include:

Dual Degree programs which lead to the same multiple degrees
without participation in the specific above programs are also
available. Unlike joint-degree programs, "dual degree" students
fulfill requirements of both programs independently without
involvement of another program. Specialized Dual Degree programs
include Liberal Studies and Technology as well as a Computer and
Cognitive Science Program. Both programs award a degree from the
College of Arts and Sciences and a degree from the School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences.

For graduate programs, there are many formalized joint degree
graduate programs such as a joint J.D./MBA. Penn is also the home
to interdisciplinary institutions such as the Institute for
Medicine and Engineering, the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for
Management and International Studies, the Institute for Research in
Cognitive Science, and the Executive Master's in Technology
Management Program.

Academic medical center and biomedical research complex

Penn's health-related programs — including the Schools of Nursing,
Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine, and programs in
bioengineering (School of Engineering) and health management (the
Wharton School) — are among the university's strongest academic
components. The combination of intellectual breadth, research
funding (each of the health sciences schools ranks in the top 5 in
annual NIH funding), clinical resources and overall scale ranks
Penn with only a small handful of peer universities in the
U.S.

The size of Penn's biomedical research organization, however, adds
a very capital intensive component to the university's operations,
and introduces revenue instability due to changing government
regulations, reduced federal funding for research, and Medicaid/Medicare program changes. This is a
primary reason highlighted in bond rating agencies' views on Penn's
overall financial rating, which ranks one notch below its academic
peers. Penn has worked to address these issues by pooling its
schools (as well as several hospitals and clinical practices) into
the University of Pennsylvania Health System, thereby pooling
resources for greater efficiencies and research impact.

Admissions selectivity

Penn is one of the most selective universities in the United
States. For the Class of 2012 entering in fall 2008, the university
received 22,935 applications and admitted 16.95 percent of the
applicants, 99% of whom were in the top 10% of their high school
classes. 63% of the admitted applicants matriculated. In 2007,
Penn's acceptance rate was 15.9%, with 96% of incoming freshmen
ranked in the top 10% of their high school classes. In the last 5
years, Penn has received around 21,000 applications for each
freshman class, has admitted on average 17 percent of applications
and saw about 65 percent of admitted applicants matriculate.
Further, Penn consistently ranks among the 10 toughest schools to
get into, according to the Princeton Review. The Atlantic also
ranked Penn among the 10 most selective schools in the
country.

At the graduate level, Penn's admissions rates, like most
universities', vary considerably based on school and program. Based
on admission statistics from U.S.News and World
Report, Penn's most selective programs include its law school,
the health care schools (medicine, dental medicine, nursing), and
its business school.

In 2008, the British Times
Higher Education magazine ranked Penn 11th in the world
and 7th among U.S. universities. In 2007, Penn placed 15th on the Shanghai
Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities.The
Center for Measuring University Performance ranks Penn in its top
cluster of research universities in the nation, tied with Columbia, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.In 2007, The Washington Monthly ranked
Penn 17th overall, and 4th among private institutions (behind
Cornell, Stanford, and MIT) on its list of universities'
contributions to national service (Research: total research
spending; Ph.D.s granted in science and engineering; Community
Service: the number of students in ROTC, Peace Corps, etc.; and
social mobility: percentage of, and support for, Pell grant
recipients). Forbes.com ranked Penn #83 on their 2009
edition of "America's Best Colleges." In the 2008 edition of
"America's Best Colleges," Forbes.com ranked Penn at #61.

University of Pennsylvania's undergraduate business program at
Wharton has retained its #1 ranking in U.S. News for many
years.

Claudia Cohen Hall, formerly Logan
Hall, home of The College of Arts and Sciences and former home of
The Wharton School

Undergraduate programs

Penn's arts and science programs are all well regarded, with many
departments ranked amongst the nation's top 10. At the
undergraduate level, Wharton,
Penn's business school, and Penn's nursing school have maintained
their #1, 2 or 3 rankings since U.S.News began
reviewing such programs. In the School of Engineering, top
departments are bioengineering
(typically ranked in the top 5 by U.S.News),
mechanical engineering,
chemical engineering and
nanotechnology. The school is also
strong in some areas of computer science and artificial
intelligence.

Graduate and professional programs

Penn's graduate schools are among the most distinguished schools in
their fields. Penn's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is
generally regarded as one of the top schools in the nation (see
1995 rankings by the National Research
Council). A study updated the NRC rankings and adjusted them
for faculty size and also factored out reputational surveys (saying
that such surveys were lagging indicators of academic quality).
That study, "The Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and
Challengers in the Postwar Era," ranked Penn's arts, humanities,
and sciences departments 7th in the US.

In 2007,
Penn acquired about between the campus and the Schuylkill River
(the former site of the Philadelphia Civic Center and a nearby site owned by the United States Postal
Service). Dubbed the Postal Lands, the site extends from
Market Street on the north to Penn's Bower Field on the south. It
encompasses the main U.S. Postal Building at 30th and Market
Streets (the retail post office at the east end of the building
will remain open), the Postal Annex between Chestnut Street and
Walnut Street, the Vehicle Maintenance Facility Garage along
Chestnut Street and the of surface parking south of Walnut Street.
Over the next decade, the site will become the home to educational,
research, biomedical, and
mixed-use facilities. Penn
also plans new connections between the campus and the city,
including a pedestrian bridge.

Libraries

Penn's library began in 1750 with a donation of books from
cartographer Louis Evans. Twelve years later, then-provost William Smith sailed to
England to raise additional funds to increase the collection size.
More than 250 years later, it has grown into a system of 15
libraries (13 are on the contiguous campus) with 400 FTE employees
and a total operating budget of more than $48 million. The library
system holds 5.7 million book and serial volumes. It subscribes to
44,000 print serials and e-journals.

Penn's Libraries, with associated school or subject area:

Annenberg (School of Communications), located in the Annenberg
School

Biddle (Law), located in the Law School

Biomedical, located adjacent to the Robert Wood Johnson
Pavilion of the Medical School

Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, located on Walnut Street at
Washington Square

The University Museum

The University Museum was founded in 1887. During the early
twentieth century UPM conducted some of the first and most
important archaeological and anthropological expeditions to Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Africa, East Asia and South America, thus the
collection includes a very large number of antiquities from ancient
Egypt and the Middle East. Its most famous object is the goat
rearing into the branches of a rosette-leafed plant, from the
royal tombs of Ur. The museum also has a
strong collection of Chinese artifacts. Features of its Beaux-Arts building include a
dramatic rotunda and gardens
that include Egyptian papyrus. UPM's
scientific division, MASCA, focuses on the application of modern
scientific techniques to aid the interpretation of archaeological
contexts.

Residences

University residences include DuBois College House, Fisher
Hassenfeld College House (formerly Woodland), Gregory College
House, Harnwell College House, Harrison College House, Hill College
House, Kings Court English College House, Riepe College House
(formerly Spruce House), Rodin College House (formerly Hamilton
College House), Sansom Place East / West, Stouffer College House,
and Ware College House. Within the college houses, Penn has nearly
forty themed residential programs for students with shared
interests such as world cinema or science and technology.

Many of the nearby homes on 40-42nd are often rented by
undergraduate students moving off campus after freshman year.

Student life

Locust Walk lit up during the winter
season

Demographics

Of those accepted for admission to the Class of 2013, 39.2 percent
are Asian, Hispanic, African, or
Native
American. Women comprise 51.3 percent of all students currently
enrolled.

Selected student organizations

The Philomathean Society,
founded in 1813, is the oldest student group in the United States.
The student-run TV station UTV13 is the oldest college TV station
in the country. The Mask and Wig Club is the oldest all-male musical comedy troupe in the
country. Also, the University is home to the only all female
collegiate musical sketch comedy troupe in the nation, Bloomers,
founded in 1978. The University of
Pennsylvania Glee Club, founded in 1862, is one of the oldest
continually operating collegiate choruses in the United States. Its
best-known and longest-serving director was Bruce Montgomery, who led the
club from 1956 until 2000.

The University of
Pennsylvania Band has been a part of student life since 1897.
The Penn Band performs at football and basketball games as well as
university functions (e.g. commencement
and convocation) throughout the year. It
has a current membership of approximately 80 students. "The Red and the Blue" and "Fight On
Pennsylvania" are notable songs commonly played and sung at
university events and games.

Under The Button - online blogs written by staff of
The Daily Pennsylvanian

Athletics

Athletic Logo

Penn's sports teams are nicknamed the Quakers. They participate in
the Ivy League and Division I (Division I FCS for football) in the
NCAA. In
recent decades they often have been league champions in football
(12 times from 1982 to 2003) and basketball (22 times from 1970 to
2006). The first athletic team at Penn was its cricket team.

Rugby

The Penn Men's Rugby Football Club is recognized as the one of the
oldest collegiate rugby teams in America. The earliest
documentation of its existence comes from the Daily Pennsylvanian
on October 22, 1910: Penn's Rugby Team Students Practice on
Franklin Field at 7 o'clock am.

"Such is the devotion to English rugby football on the part of
University of Pennsylvania's students from New Zealand, Australia,
and England that they meet on Franklin Field at 7 o'clock every
morning and practice the game. The varsity track and football
squads monopolize the field to such an extent that the early hours
of the morning are the only ones during which the rugby enthusiasts
can play. Any time except Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a squad of
25 men may be seen running through the hardest kind of practice
after which they may divide into two teams and play a hard game.
Once a week, captain CC Walton, '11, dental, who hails from New
Zealand, gives the enthusiastic players a blackboard talk in which
he explains the intricacies of the game in detail…"- The Daily
Pennsylvanian, 10/22/1910

The team existed on and off during the World Wars, with the current
club having it roots in the 1960s. While the current Penn Rugby
team no longer wakes up in the wee hours of the morning for
practice, the tradition of hard work and enthusiasm developed by CC
Walton lives on.

The club continues to strive for the highest level of play, while
also enjoying the camaraderie and social aspect of the game. In
1992, Penn won the Ivy League Championship defeating Dartmouth in
the final. In 2004, Penn Men's Rugby won the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby
Union championship.

Football

Penn football made many contributions to the sport in its early
days. During the 1890s, Penn's famed coach and alumnus George Washington Woodruff
introduced the quaternick kick, a forerunner of the forward pass, as well as the place-kick from scrimmage and the delayed pass.
In 1894, 1895, 1897, and 1904, Penn was generally regarded the
national champion of collegiate football. The achievements of two
of Penn's outstanding players from that era — John Heisman and John
Outland — are remembered each year with the presentation of the
Heisman Trophy to the most
outstanding college football player of the year, and the Outland Trophy to the most outstanding
college football interior
lineman of the year.

Facilities

Franklin
Field is where the Quakers play football, field hockey, lacrosse,
sprint football, and track and field
(and formerly soccer). It is the oldest stadium still
operating for football games and was the first stadium to sport two
tiers. It hosted the first commercially televised football game,
was once the home field of the Philadelphia Eagles, and was the site of
early Army – Navy games.
Today it is also used by Penn students for recreation such as
intramural and club sports,
including touch football
and cricket. Franklin Field hosts the annual collegiate track and
field event "the Penn Relays."

Tom Wolfe's novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, is based
in part on the particular collegiate subculture found at Penn.
Wolfe researched the novel by talking to students from Penn, and
even attended a party at one of Penn's secret societies.

A number of scenes at the beginning of the 2009 film
Transformers:
Revenge of the Fallen were filmed in the freshman Quad as
well as in front of and inside The Castle, a fraternity house and a
prominent example of gothic-collegiate architecture.

Television

The
famous mansion in the cartoon series The Addams Family is modeled on the
College Hall. Cartoonist and Penn alumnus Charles Addams is said to have used the
building as his inspiration for the mansion of the Addams
Family.

Penn is often mentioned in the NBC drama American Dreams. Two of the main
characters, Sam and Beth, attend the school. In the second and
third seasons, several of the recreations take place at The Lair, a
Penn campus coffee house/student union facility.

Penn's campus acts as a backdrop to the Food Network's
"Unwrapped" episode from 2008 that is
titled "Cozy Cuisine." Host Marc
Summers is seen in front of College
Hall and Psi Upsilon as well as on Locust Walk.

Weeklong series of The
Colbert Report was filmed at Penn during the Pennsylvania
Democratic Primary in 2008. It was taped in the Zellerbach Theatre
in the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts.